Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan had suspended 6 Congress MPs on Monday the beginning of the second week of the Monsoon session, for their highly unbecoming behavior in the House.
The opposition members were demanding a discussion on the issues of lynching during the question hour of the House. The speaker had agreed to the demand of discussion, but after the question hour, in spite of this, the opposition kept shouting slogans against the government for not allowing them to speak. Few Congress MPs tore and threw papers on the Speaker. Following this behavior of the MPs, Mahajan suspended 6 Mps for five consecutive days.
Following the decision of the Speaker, opposition parties including Congress, TMC, RJD, NCP, CPM, CPI SP, etc staged a united dharna in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament House by raising slogans against the suspension of six fellow MPs.
When the House commenced at 11 am on Tuesday, Mahajan tactfully avoided the protest of the opposition by adjourning the House till 3 p.m. on the grounds of the oath taking ceremony of the 14th President of India. Though the opposition MPs attended the Central Hall function in full strength, they returned to raise the issue of suspension of MPs when the House reconvened.
Trying to control the situation, Congress floor leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy appealed Sumitra Mahajan to show generosity and revoke the suspension to get the House to resume work. Kharge said that the throwing of the papers happened in the heat of the moment and urged Mahajan to take back her orders.
Responding to this Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar argued that such type of behavior will not be accepted in the House and he also reminded Congress of their behavior with the opposition when they were ruling the government.
The opposition continued the protest and Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the session for the day, feeling emotional and said that the opposition was not interested in allowing the House to function.
However, before the adjournment she allowed the HRD minister to introduce the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.